doth so often make use of such kind of comparisons and similitudes as these are The Lords People they are sometimes compared to a Garden sometimes to a Vineyard or as here to a Tilled and Harvest-field So that our Souls they are Gods Field and Harvest What doth that imply It implys these two things 1. It shews us what we are by Nature When the Gospel doth first come unto us that we are as an untilled Field as a barren Desart or as an unfruitful Wilderness In Gen. 3. and about the 18th you read there upon mans sin that God had Cursed the Earth therefore Thorns and Thistles shall it bring forth There was the like Curse upon the heart of man from that time it brought forth nothing but Thorns and Thistles So that as it is with persons that are travelling through some Desart places over high Mountains through rocky and stony waies where there is no husbandry used there grows nothing but Bryars and Thorns and unfruitful Trees such as are fit for the fire Such are the hearts and lives of all the children of men by Nature like the Ground the Apostle speaks of in the sixth of the Hebrews that brings forth nothing but Thorns and Nettles which is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned As for those fruits of the Flesh which the Apostle speaks of in Gal. 5.19 Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murders and the like these fruits abound every where But as for those fruits of the Spirit which he mentions in the following verse which is Love and Joy and Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Paith Meekness and the like These fruits grow not in Natures Garden One asking a Gardiner what the reason was that Weeds did spring so naturally out of the Ground when it was so hard a thing to make good Plants and Flowers grow in it He answered Because the Earth was as a Natural Mother to the Weeds but was become as a Step-mother to the Plants Thus it is with all our hearts by nature the things of Grace and Godliness they are not only above our corrupt natures but contrary to them In a word my Brethren What were all those Churches you read of in the New Testament the Roman Corinthian and the rest of them before the Gospel was Preached to them They were all but as a noisome Dunghill or barren Wilderness to God till the Apostles came to Preach amongst them and to Plant them and then indeed the Wilderness was turned into a fruitful Garden then was fulfilled that of the Prophet Instead of the Bryar came up the Fir-tree c. Then 2. As this shews us what we are by Nature so it evidences Secondly What we should be when the Gospel comes to us As the Ground receives in the Plow and the Seed that it may bring forth the Harvest so should we be willing to hear the Word and to receive the Gospel that we may be gathered in unto Christ by Faith and Repentance As the Prophet Jer. 4.3 He bids us Plow up the fallow ground for thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem Break up the fallow ground and sow not among Thorns The Husbandman doth not use to cast his Seed among the Thorns without first breaking up the fallow Ground without first loosening the root of the Thorns and cleansing it from the Weeds and when the fallow Ground is broken up many times it needs to be Plowed not only once but twice or three times before it is fit to receive the Seed Thus it is with our hearts by Nature we need to be Plowed by the Word over and over and to be Harrowed by Afflictions again and again before we are fit to receive the Seed and to bring forth fruit to God Break up the fallow Ground and sow not among Thorns For persons to sow their Seed without Plowing the Ground that were a preposterous course And so it is with many people when they are convinced that they have lived wickedly they think they will now mend their waies and do better and perform some good actions that God approves of and then they hope all will be well I but that is to sow without Plowing God will never have a good Crop here Ungodliness will never be rooted out nor Godliness truly implanted in the soul except our hearts be first Plowed and broken up Therefore as the Plow you know doth enter into the bowels and heart of the Earth doth rend it open and break it to pieces so there are some truths of the Word which are like the Plow-share to enter into our hearts and to rend them and break them to pieces such as the knowledge of the purity and exactness of Gods Law and of the evil of sin and that dreadful curse we have brought upon our selves by it and of the sinfulness of our Natures how all our faculties are full of this sin And therefore we should joyn in with God in those things that are revealed to us concerning our lost and undone condition by Nature we should labour clearly to understand what is delivered in the Word concerning our lost estate and to work those truths upon our hearts that we may be sinsible of them and to beg of the Lord that he would set them home upon us that we may be truly sensible of them For Ministers they can only sow the Truths in your Ears and your Heads you must take them and labour to sow them in your Hearts and when the Truths come close to you at any time as a Sword piercing through your lusts and dividing between the Marrow and the Joynts Joh. 2. you should bid it welcom The Psalmist complains that the Plowers made deep furrows on their backs but I may say blessed are those Men and Women on whose hearts and consciences the Word doth make deep furrows For the great reason why so much of the Seed in the Parable of the Sower miscarryed was because it wanted Root So much for the first what is meant by the Harvest 2. Who are these Labourers in this Harvest There is no doubt of it but Christ thereby means the Prophets of the Old Testament and the Apostles of the New Testament and the faithful Ministers of Christ in every Generation who are to labour in the Preaching of the Gospel and the salvation of souls And though this be the most blessed and glorious work that any Man or Angel can possibly be employed in to be recovering and reducing lost man to God his first cause and principle yet this shews us the nature of the work namely that the calling of a Minister is a laborious Calling and so the Apostle in 1 Tim. 5.7 Let the elders that rule well be accounted worthy of double honour they that labour in the Word and Doctrine the word signifies not only Labour but Pains or painful labour such wherein men do spend their strength and
A CRY for LABOURERS IN Gods Harvest Being a SERMON Preached upon The sad Occasion of the late FUNERAL of that Eminent Servant of Christ Mr. RALPH VENNING Who departed this Life March 10. 1673 4. By Robert Bragge an unfeigned Lover of and Mourner for the deceased LONDON Printed and are to be sold by John Hancock Senior and Junior at the sign of the three Bibles in Popes-head Alley in Cornhill 1674. To the READERS and more especially to such as were the HEARERS of this SERMON THough I should readily welcome any occasion to testifie to the world that great respect and dear Affection which I had for the Person in whose remembrance this Sermon was Preached yet I thought I had reason enough to say you Nay again and again in your desires of Printing it and indeed I cannot well answer it to my own Reason that I do now subscribe my Placet to the publication of it For it seems volens nolens you will have it from me It had been excuse enough that in the preparing this Discourse for the Pulpit I had no thought at all of preferring it to the Press And this the intelligent Reader will easily believe me in when he sees how Home-spun and plain both Matter and Stile of it are Truly I am afraid lest some that knew what a popular and excellent Preacher Mr. Venning was will think him disparaged and not honoured by such a Discourse when they shall behold instead of a Velvet Pall but a piece of Freeze for his covering When I heard the sad tidings of the Death of this my dear Brother and fellow-helper The Text here treated on was the first Scripture that came into my mind and I judg'd it might be a word in season to that Congregation who had enjoyed his worthy labours and were more immediately concerned in his Death and loss To help them in the Improvement of this sad stroke was all that I intended For how could I think there would be need of a Funeral Oration of any Elegies or Encomiums to keep up the Name and Memory of such a one whose praise is in the Gospel throughout all the Churches and whose own works left behind will ever praise him in the Gates of this great City I do not question at all the acceptance of this work how mean and slender so ever it be because as the Picture of a dead Friend it may serve to put you in mind of him whom you so dearly loved and have so great cause to remember If the having of these Lines before your eyes may affect your hearts If it may be of use to you to stir up the Grace of God in you and to engage you in this great Duty which the Judgements of Gods Hand as well as of his Mouth do call aloud for I shall not think my labour lost I never Preached a Sermon with a sadder Heart nor to a sadder Auditory I did not much wonder to see so many weeping Eyes when I considered for whom you wept You have lost one that was an Interpreter a Preacher one of a thousand Oh how was he wont to lift up his Voice like a Trumpet what Musick was he wont to make in your Ears what Melody in your Hearts How spiritually and sweetly did he use to Pray How powerfully and profitably did he use to Preach What an holy Art had he of dividing the Word aright both to those that were without and those within Methinks I see you still flocking about him and hanging like a company of Bees upon his Lips What Milk and Honey did there use to drop thence He fed you not only with the Milk but with the Cream of the Word I doubt not but there are some yea many of you that have cause to bless God that ever you saw his Face and heard his Voice God having spoken not only to your Ears but to your Hearts by him He hath now Prayed and Preached his last with you he is at rest from his Labours and his works follow him Pray ye the Lord of the Harvest that he would continue the faithful Labourers that are yet among you that the Harvest may not be lost for want of Labourers that none of his Churches may be left as Sheep without a Shepherd And Pray ye that He would send forth more Labourers into the Harvest that the number of those that Love and Fear him in the Earth may be encreased and such added to the Church as shall be saved And let all that love the Lord say Amen and Amen So Prays An unworthy Servant R. BRAGGE MATTH IX 38. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the Harvest that he would send forth Labourers into his Harvest YOU are not ignorant of the Occasion of my choosing this Text. And the Text as you may perceive doth suit the Occasion God is calling his Labourers out of his Harvest apace he removes them by pairs yea by clusters what shall we do what is like to become of us That is the Question I know that you have great thoughts of heart about it There is like to be a great dearth and scarcity of faithful Labourers in Gods Harvest We have here the Counsel that our Lord Christ himself gives in this very case that we should Pray the great Lord of the Harvest that he would send forth Labourers into his Harvest You see what the duty of the Text is that is Prayer Who it is that we must pray unto to him that is the great Lord of the Harvest What it is that we must pray for that he would send forth Labourers into his Harvest Then Lastly You have the Therefore or the Reason why he presses this duty upon his Disciples The Harvest truly is great saith he in the former Verse but the Labourers are few The people did flock after Christs Ministry in great multitudes and he had compassion upon them because he saw them as Sheep without a Shepherd Pray you therefore saith he the Lord of the Harvest that he would send forth Labourers into his Harvest The Lesson or Observation that I would put you upon the learning and practice of is this DOCT. That it is the Duty of every good Christian Man or Woman to pray and cry mightily to God that â—e would send forth more Labourers into his Harvest especially when there is a great scarcity and want of Labourers in the Harvest In the prosecuting hereof we would do something by way of Explication something by way of Confirmation and something by way of Application For Explication there are only two things 1. What we are to understand here by the Harvest 2. Who are those Labourers in the Harvest 1. What are we to understand by the Harvest Thereby I take to be meant the People that were to be gathered in to Christ by the Preaching of the Gospel Christ you know did often speak in Parables and that People it seems delighted much in Similitudes and Parables And therefore the Scripture
fruit of the Prayers and Blood of Christ therefore if Christ hath disposed of us in such a place where we have a faithful Ministry we should exceedingly bless God for it as David Psal 147.20 He sheweth his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgements unto Israel He hath not dealt so by any Nation Other Nations had as much wealth plenty of Gold and Silver and more than they but this is more than all outward blessings So how great a blessing this is too you may see in that Prophet Jeremy 30.20 God promises his People there Though he should feed them with Bread of Adversity and Water of Affliction yet they should have this Mercy that their teachers c. A promise to a carnal heart is of no worth or esteem but of great worth to a gracious heart Though you should see sad times here shall be your mercy and blessing 3. If it be such a desirable blessing for God to send forth Labourers into his Harvest then sure it is a matter greatly to be lamented when God is calling his faithful Labourers apace out of his Harvest instead of increasing them he is diminishing of them he is removing the Teachers not only into corners but into Graves Here is just matter of lamentation and sorrow to us when we consider how many faithful Labourers and eminent Preachers of the Word God hath of late removed out of his Harvest You know when Samuel died 1 Sam. 28.3 it is said They that buried him made a great lamentation for him And in Acts 8.2 you read of devout men that carried Stephen to his Burial and made great lamentation over him And in Acts 20. when Paul tells them they were like to see his face no more that it was the last time he should ever Pray or Preach with them it sets them all a weeping and a mourning I have read of one that when he heard of the death of any godly man he would fall a weeping to think of the great loss there was to the Church and People of God in the death of every good Christian and gracious person Brethren if you look on the loss of a godly Parent or Husband a godly Friend or Neighbour if you look upon such a loss as a great loss as David mourned for his friend Jonathan and Christ himself weeps over the Grave of Lazarus What is then the death and loss of a godly Minister yea of so many godly Ministers when you have loss upon loss death upon death one week carrying one godly Minister to his Grave and the next week carrying another I am afraid we do not lay these sad rebukes of God to heart as we ought to do It is not enough when you hear of such a Minister dead to be asking how long was he sick or what disease he died of to say he was a good man a good Preacher and alas it was a great loss but we should seriously consider such strokes and lay it to heart for the Living will lay it to heart If we are living indeed we should and shall lay them to heart Why so Because the loss of so many faithful Labourers as you have of late lost in these few years in this City it looks like a heavy Judgement of God against you I do not say a Judgement to them it may be a mercy to them Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord Death is their gain and advantage but the great loss is ours 1. Are you not thereby deprived of any further fruit or benefit of their holy Labours When the Vessel is broken the Treasure that is removed to Heaven and you can be no more enriched by it When the Tree is cut down it yields no more fruit How many faithful Preachers are gone under whose shaddow you did use to sit and feed with great delight How many whose Preaching used to be to you as a lovely sound and pleasant voice whose Mouths are now stopped with Dust so that you shall hear them Preach and Pray no more your hearts shall be no more warmed by their Prayers and Sermons 2. It is a Judgement for sometimes yea many times when a faithful Labourer is taken away there is it may be some loyterer comes in his room Acts 20.17 Paul tells them after his departure Wolves would come instead of the Myrtle Tree cometh up a Bryar or Thorn as it is with many people and Congregations who formerly had a godly painful Minister among them and it may be were a weary of him and this godly Minister is taken away and there is a pricking Nettle cometh in his room instead of faithful Seers they are blind Guides and where the blind leads the blind Christ tells you the issue The Scripture speaks much of these idle Shepherds as a Judgement instead of faithful Teachers they shall have those to give them a Stone instead of Bread 3. It 's a Judgement to be greatly lamented when faithful Ministers are taken away because it is commonly the sins of the People that do procure and have a hand in the death of their Minister Here we might be enquiring What are those sins by which God is so often provoked to take away his Ministers from a People There are two extreams people are apt to run into either to over-value or under-value their Ministers The Scripture doth take notice of such an evil as that of having the persons of men in admiration when we receive and love the Truth for the persons sake and not the person for the Truths sake when one is for Paul another for Apollos We may lose our enjoyments by our too high as well as too low prizing of them Indeed the fault commonly lies on the other hand that is their undervaluing the Ministry of the Word their unprofitableness unthankfulness barrenness under the droppings of the Word this provokes God to make the Heavens as Brass to them when they play with the Bâ—ead and Light then God comes and removes the Light and takes away the Bread 4. It 's a Judgement to be greatly lamented when faithful Ministers are taken away out of the Harvest because it is a sad prognostick of some greater Judgements and some heavier evils that are coming upon a people You know what the Prophet saith Isa 57.1 The righteous perish and no man layeth it to heart and merciful men are taken away none considering that the nighteous is taken away from the evil to come Oh those Words of Christ my Brethren come into my thoughts when he was a dying and some were weeping for him Weep not for me saith he but for your selves and children because of those miseries and calamities that are drawing nigh to you Methinks it is the language of our dying Ministers Weep not for us c. When the Labourers are called home from the Harvest it is a sign the night is a coming When chirping Birds are removed into their nest it is a sign the shadows of the evening are
coming When Lights are put out what can we expect but that darkness will follow When God calls off his Shepherds we have just cause to fear he will loose Wolves upon the Flocks to devour and make a prey of them My Brethren if God should send such weather that men could not sow or if when the Harvest should be grown up there should be a mortality that there were no men to reap it you would think a Famine were coming and lament over it as a sad and grievous thing Oh there is a Famine the Scripture speaks of not of Bread but of the Word and when God takes away his Ministers so fast have we not cause to fear this Famine is coming on upon us Oh this my Brethren should melt your hearts into Prayers and Tears and if you have any Groans or Tears to pour them out before the Lord if you have any interest in the Throne of Grace to improve it that God would send forth faithful Labourers into his Harvest Here my Brethren I might bespeak you of this Congregation more particularly to lay to heart the sad breach God hath made among you in his late providence in his removing him who was wont to labour in the midst of you Methinks there are some circumstances in that stroke that particularly do require our serious consideration First of all The suddenness and unexpectedness of that stroke Not sudden to him for not many days before he was taken sick he set his house in order acquainting his Wife where his Will was so that it seems he had some kind of presage of his approaching death but sudden to us the stroke was How many of you that were surprised and startled to hear of Mr. Venning's death how many that scarce heard of his sickness until you heard he was dead Who of you thought the last day you saw and heard him in this place that it must be the last day you should hear and see him Who of you when you heard him beginning to direct you how you must put on the first Piece of the spiritual Armour did imagine that he was so near of being uncloathed himself and to lay down his Earthly Tabernacle God snatched him away he had a mind to take him from us and would not be hindred by the Prayers of his People Secondly This circumstance doth agravate the loss namely that he was taken away though I cannot say in the Prime or flower of his strength for he had Laboured many years yet in middle Age. For according to the course of nature we might have injoyed more of his Labours he was not withered by old Age. When a drie stake is removed out of the hedge it is not so great a loss as when a fruit-bearing tree is cut down Thirdly Is there not this Aggravation attends it namely that he is taken away in such a time of scarcity and dearth of faithful Labourers Consider my Brethren the great Mortality of faithful Ministers that hath been of late years in this Nation doth speak aloud to us to warn us of great evils hastening upon us Lastly There is this circumstance above all the rest namely the Eminency of the Ministerial gifts and priviledges God had qualified him withall In this respect he was like Saul taller by the head than many of his Brethren like Benjamin he had a double yea treble portion of spiritual gifts He was such a workman as the Apostle speaks that needed not to be ashamed able rightly to divide the word of truth I do not intend to enter into any commendation of him though I might speak much of him and yet speak below not above his true worth He needs not any such Spices to embalm his name which hath left so sweet a savour behind him It was not praise or Commendation of the dead but instructions to the Living that I intended in this discourse Only the more Eminent a person is for serviceableness and usefulness in the Church of God when there are many can stand forth and say It pleased God by such a mans Ministry to open my blind eyes and others that can bear witness too how God hath spoken to their hearts for quickning comfort and counsel I say the greater is the loss of such an Instrument and the more to be bewailed by us I would wind up all by one word of Counsel that is to teach you how you may improve these sad losses You know Sampson found honey in the Carcass of the dead Lion There are many sweet and wholesome instructions to be gathered from the dead Ministers Abel though dead yet speaketh I may say of the dead Ministers though dead and laid in their graves They speak to you they speak with a louder voice out of their Graves and Coffins than ever they did out of their Pulpit Here I might show you those several lessons you may learn from your dead Ministers but time is gone This one thing to be sure they call upon you for that you would labour to remember and put in Practice those Godly Sermons they Preached to you in their life-time The death of Ministers should revive those Counsels and Comserts that you received in their life-time from them and enliven the remembrance of them upon their hearts 2 Kings 2.14 when Elijah was dead Elisha takes up his mantle I would have you be gathering up those instructions that the Ministers did let fall to you whilest they were â—â—â—ve to remember how he spake on such a subject at such a time and spoke such a word to my soul at another time Here I might desire you to call to remembrance the late Sermons of this Eminent Servant of God to remember his discourse of the grace of God which hath appeared in the Gospel to teach us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and Godly even in this Present world And his Sermons concerning the Love of the Son of God And of the saving Operations of the Spirit of God and to labour to shew forth the Works of the Spirit in your holy walking according to those Sermons you heard from him so lately To put on the Armour of God and to prepare for the evil day that you may be able to stand in that day All those heavenly spiritual Gospel Sermons he Preached to you call for holy Heavenly and Gospel conversations from you In a word let it be your care to bring forth fruit Answerable to all the labour and cost God hath bestowed upon you God will certainly call you to an account for the health strength and sweat and labour and lives of his Servants he hath bestowed upon you Therefore people had need to look to it for God highly values his dear Servants lives and labours and will have a valuable consideration from you or upon you Therefore my Brethren to conclude what you would that your Garden and field should be unto you when you have digged them planted them